The game features over 50 new songs, some of which can be unlocked using Konami's e-Amusement platform – which made its official debut on 9th Style.

Beatmania IIDX tasks the player with performing songs through a controller consisting of seven key buttons and a scratchable turntable.

[1] Hitting the notes with strong timing increases the score and groove gauge bar, allowing the player to finish the stage.

The improved platform had its benefits, such as better graphics capabilities, network support through e-Amusement, larger storage, and background videos being stored on the hard drive along with the game data (dropping the need for a separate DVD player).

[citation needed] 9th Style was the first version of IIDX to have support for Konami's new e-Amusement system, which can be used for the saving of stats and records to "entry cards".

The cards could save stats and scores in between games, allowing new features such as the ability to sort songs by a player's previous performance on it (by letter grades, clear status, or full combos).